This is what i tell a lot of my friends:
If you're afraid to bend cards, quit magic.
Seriously, if every time a moves requires a bent card, and your afraid of it, then you'll have a hard time. There are so many useful things involving card bending: Cascade control, Card springs, Riffle Shuffle, Crimps, etc. You have to get over the fear of getting your cards bent.
The best thing to help you with that is fanning powder. They keep your deck nice and new. I've been using the same deck of red bikes for over a month, half the cards are bent and dirty and every thing but it still feels brand new.
But if you're a fanning powder hater, then you simply have to bend the cards the other way. After you do a waterfall, do a dribble, or do a waterfall face up.
Just my 2 cents